Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Below is a short interview with Suzanne Demeo, Adjunct Instructor in the Art and Art History Department. A grouping of her watercolor paintings are on display in the Faculty Show.

Q: All of your work in this show depicts a similar stretch
of road in the Nevada desert, what appealed to you about this area?

A: When my parents retired 15 years ago they moved from
Connecticut to Nevada. Since then I have visited them at least once a year and
I have been photographing the landscape and using the photos to inform my
artwork. Over the past two years my parents have passed away. During my last
visit I found a box filled with photographs my mother had taken of the cloud
formations over the mountains behind their house. The sky is so vast in the west,
the vistas stretching so far because of the lack of trees and the clear thin
air. My mother was really taken with the variety of cloud formations and the
way the “weather” moved through the valley. I have been painting the Nevada
landscape off and on for many years but I never really thought much about
painting clouds. Five out of six of the paintings in this exhibition were taken
in part from my mother’s photographs. The exception is “Field on Fire” which is
based on a photograph that I took very early in the morning as the sun was
coming up over the mountains. The color of the light in the west is different
and the shadows are crisper than ours because of the lack of humidity. I find
the whole area infinitely beautiful and am grateful to my parents that I have
had an opportunity to explore that part of the country. I am feeling the loss
of my parents and also the loss of subject matter for future work.

Q: Why did you choose to use the medium of watercolor for
these scenes?

A: I have not painted in
any other medium since college and did not attempt watercolor until about
twelve years ago. Before that I used paper collage and pastel mostly. Prior to
this series I was working with mixed media; combining watercolor, pastel and
gouache. I wanted to limit myself to watercolor only for this series of
paintings. The medium requires that you think ahead. It is an additive process.
Areas of whites and lights need to be “reserved’ because you cannot go back and
add them later unless you use an opaque medium such as gouache which gives the
work a different look. There really is no such thing as white watercolor paint.
I spent a lot of time on the preliminary drawings which I really enjoyed. Then
there is the surprise element of watercolor because of the way the water and
paper influence the paint.

Q:What artists or periods of art history inspire the
subjects and /or aesthetics of your work?

A: Although I appreciate many different types of art and
artists, I found out a long time ago that looking at a particular artist or
period in art to find inspiration does not usually work for me. It becomes too
much of an academic exercise and I just end up getting lost.Usually the inspiration for my work comes
from the colors and forms of nature or manmade objects. For a while I was
interested in the colors of rust on metal surfaces. When I initially moved to
Virginia I made a series of paper collages with flower and plant forms because
I was inspired by all of the different things that grow in the South compared
to New England. This time my inspiration was my father. He was an incredibly
creative guy and a really good artist. I inherited several of his oil
paintings, watercolors and drawings and have them hanging in my home. After my
mother died I went two years without working in my studio in any serious
way.Between May and July I made twelve
paintings. With my mother’s cloud pictures, my father’s beautiful watercolor
brushes and a stack of their old CD’s, I thought about them as I painted their
big back yard.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Happy Friday everyone! I was just recently alerted to the work of two of our faculty artists in other venues, so I thought I'd pass them along!Elizabeth Mead's work is currently being exhibited at the Seldon Gallery in Norfolk in an invitational exhibition entitled, SUBSTRATA: Layered Meanings in Contemporary Art curated by Amy Brandt, who is the McKinnon Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk.

You can also see Mead's work in a collaboration with dance professor Joan Gavaler on a dance piece called, "The Molting," which is part of Dancevent this weekend at Phi Beta Kappa Hall at the College.

SUBSTRATA: Layered Meanings in Contemporary Artopened October 4, 2012 and will run until November 24, 2012. The Selden Arcade is located at 208 East Main St. Norfolk, VA.

Danceevent in Phi Beta Kappa Hall runs only through this Saturday night, October 27, 2012. Shows are at 8 pm. Tickets are between $5-$10.

Naomi Falk also has work currently being exhibited at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA. The interactive part of the exhibition is entitled ONE on ONE Conversations with Artists and it is part of the FALL SOLOS 2012show.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Below is a short interview with Assistant Professor of
Ceramics and artist, Mike Jabbur. Several pieces of Jabbur’s work will be
included in the Faculty show that opens THIS WEEKEND! Also, be sure to check out his website! Q: Your
artist statement emphasizes the dual nature of your pottery- both the
utilitarian and aesthetic. Do you intend that your pieces SHOULD be useable or
are they meant to be more aesthetic displays?

A: This is a very timely question for
you to ask.For a long time form has
been my top priority, and it has only been important to me that my pots can be used.I’ve explored that relationship in many
ways.For a while, I intentionally challenged the idea of use
within my work, and thereby hopefully challenged the user/viewer to engage more
“actively” with my pots.More recently,
I have been comfortable with the idea that my work is for “special occasion.”This was under my assumption that users would
be more willing to accommodate the challenges of use if the occasion was
somehow highlighted or enriched through that challenge.More and more, especially very recently, I
have been making subtle changes that simplify use within my work.I’m approaching this very carefully, as I
don’t intend this shift to include a demotion of form to a lesser
priority.Instead, it’s an opportunity for
me to challenge myself in my studio, to push the ease of utility without
sacrificing my ideals with regard to form and aesthetic.

Q: Do
you conceptualize/visualize in your head before you begin what your pieces will
look like when they’re done, or do the pieces evolve as you work on them?

A: New forms within my body of work usually first present
themselves as flashes in my mind, generally vague and somewhat foggy.Sometimes they generate because I’ve been
thinking about a given function, so the seed is planted in my
subconscious.Other times, I see an
object and immediately see it through the lens of my process.I draw a lot, especially when I’m developing
new forms.It’s so much faster to work
through ideas.I can get through a week’s
worth of studio trial and error in an evening with my sketchbook.But drawings seldom work exactly as I hope they
will in 3-dimensions.So I bounce back
and forth between drawing and potting for a while until things start to come
together. My process is more controlled than it may appear, and I can predict
to a fair degree what I will end up with.But I’ve also developed a process over time that includes the
opportunity for variety, chance happening, sometimes disaster, and every now
and then something magical to happen.

Q: What
appeals to you about the art of ceramics? Who or what inspired you to pursue
pottery?

A: My initial interest in pottery was not about process or the
act of making.What first attracted me
to pottery was the idea that art and utility could coexist within a single
object.I was then, and am still today,
enchanted by pottery’s ability to enrich occasions, beautify a meal, spark a
conversation, and fulfill the very human need and desire for beauty within our
daily lives.I was inspired to pursue
pottery because I felt an overwhelming desire to devote my livelihood to such
experiences.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

If Superman can’t make it,
how do members of the Muscarelle Museum of Art staff install a 1-ton sculpture
in the Museum’s draft lobby? Answer: A lot of heavy machinery.

The arrival of the
sculpture Conscious of Her Shores by
exhibiting artist Jayson Lowery yesterday presented a unique challenge because it was
so heavy. The sculpture is made out of marble, limestone, steel, and cast iron
and the process of removing out of the trailer it arrived in and getting into
the museum proper was an intricate one. Below, I have included some pictures of
the installation. (Click
on images below to enlarge.)

Sculpture is standing upright, attached via steel chains to be lifted out via forklift; on the left is the artist.

Sculpture is moved to the door of the museum onto the waiting pallet jack.

﻿

Pallet jack helps to move sculpture into the Museum's draft lobby.

﻿

The hoist then helps to place the sculpture and take it downfrom the pallet jack to the plywood.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Leslie Cheek, Jr. (1908-1992)“The
peculiar value of Mr. Cheek’s work at the College of William & Mary has
been in his perception of the irreplaceable importance of art in college life
today. Not art only as a field for amateurs, but art as a field for intelligent
and trained appreciation; art as a medium of self-expression and, above all, in
the long years of leisure that lie ahead, art as a source of fuller culture,
and as a stimulus to continuous growth.”

-John
Stewart Bryan, President of the College (1934-42)

Leslie Cheek, Jr.

As we prepare
for the 12th exhibition of art by the faculty of the Department of
Art and Art History at the Museum, I think it is important to take a moment to
acknowledge the achievements of the person responsible for bringing a Fine Arts
department to the College -- Leslie Cheek, Jr. Mr.
Cheek dedicated his career to furthering and promoting the study of the arts at
the College and in the greater community.

Leslie Cheek,
Jr. studied art at Harvard University and architecture at Yale University. He
graduated from Yale in 1935. After graduating from Yale, Cheek came to
Williamsburg to paint landscapes. Shortly after arriving, he became friends
with James L. Cogar, a curator at Colonial Williamsburg and with John Stewart
Bryan, the President of the College of William and Mary. Cogar had also studied
at Yale and taught in the History Department at the College of William and
Mary. So, when Cogar left for a semester abroad, Cheek was offered his
position. During his tenure, he utilized the first photographic slides ever
used at William and Mary.

At the College,
Cheek founded one of the first Fine Arts Departments in the south in 1937.
Originally the Department was housed in Taliaferro Hall, a converted dormitory
that was also the first air-conditioned building in Williamsburg. Andrews Hall,
which currently houses the Department of Art and Art History, opened in 1968.

The 1930s was
an exciting time in Williamsburg. Cheek hosted architect Frank Lloyd Wright,
who presented a lecture based on select works that MoMA loaned to the College.
He also brought Georgia O’Keeffe back to Williamsburg after a thirty-year
absence. She received an honorary degree and the College hosted an exhibition
of her work. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller donated a Georgia O’Keeffe painting to
the College. This painting, White Flower
(1932), is now an integral part of the Muscarelle Museum of Art’s collection.

Cheek also
served as the Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from 1948-68. He was
the second director and the longest-tenured director in the museum’s history.
Meanwhile, in 1955, Cheek opened the Virginia Museum Theatre to bring the
performing arts into a museum space.

As part of his
legacy, Cheek created an endowment at the College in 1986 to establish a
national award for outstanding presentation of the arts. The Leslie Cheek Jr.
Medal is presented to a person whose achievements significantly contribute to
the furtherance and promotion of the fields of museum, performing, or visual
arts. The director of the Muscarelle Museum of Art in conjunction with the
heads of the Fine Arts Department and the Theatre Department choose the
recipients of this prestigious award. In 1983, Leslie and his wife, Mary Tyler,
were instrumental in the building of the Muscarelle Museum of Art on the
College’s campus.